Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Jo and I found this Mickey Mouse birthday balloon while walking in the woods the other day. We find an escaped party balloon in the woods every year or so. This one more recently made landfall and is in better condition than most.

I've often wondered about this lighter than air litter. On the one hand, finding a balloon only once every year or so doesn't exactly make them a major source of litter. They certainly aren't challenging beer cans and soda bottles for that dubious honor. On the other hand, it seems odd that we find any balloons on our little piece of rural landscape. How many escaped balloons fall on and equal-size plot of urban real estate? How many helium-filled balloons are released -- either accidentally or on purpose -- every year? How many are occupying U. S. air space at any given time? How far do they travel?

Then again, it could be that we just happen to have some nearby neighbors who are very much into celebrating with balloons.

(Editors Note: BirdGuides has an excellent article discussing the scope and environmental problems caused by released balloons. Many thanks to Gwendolen for providing this link.)

Tuesday, December 23, 2008

It's been cold in My World over the past few days. We've experienced our lowest temperatures thus far this winter. One of the most beautiful and delicate phenomena resulting from this cold are frost flowers, which are actually neither frost nor flower.

Frost flowers occur when the air temperature is below freezing but the ground remains unfrozen. Here in the Ozarks, that is a fairly common wintertime event. Our ground never freezes deeply and usually thaws between cold snaps. A frost flower forms when water inside a plant stem freezes, expands and is extruded through cracks in the stem forming thin ribbons of ice. Air bubbles trapped in the ice make it appear frothy white. The extruded ribbons of ice are often much more petal-like than the ones pictured above.

Not all plants form frost flowers. Two of the more common ones that do are yellow ironweed (Verbesina alternifolia) and white crownbeard (Verbesina virginica). In fact, white crownbeard also is commonly called frostweed.

Sunday, December 21, 2008

On this shortest day of the year -- and one of the coldest too,-- I thought it would be warming to flash back to an afternoon in early fall when Jo found, photographed and, later, identified this wildflower growing along our road. (My only contribution was sneaking over to her side of the computer, borrowing photos, doing a little editing and posting them here.)

► Status: An annual herb native to North America.

► Blooming period: Mid-summer through mid-fall.

► Range: Common in the souther states of the U. S. Extends up the east coast to Maryland.

Thursday, December 18, 2008

Everything -- including the purple cone flowers that hadn't been deadheaded -- picked up a thin coating of ice and/or freezing fog over the past couple of days. Most of the wintry mix fell as sleet, so the trees and power lines did not get badly weighted down with ice. We would not have been able to navigate our road out, though.

Wednesday, December 10, 2008

Hesperiinae larvae feed on grasses and sedges.They hold their wings partially open while resting, with the front wings and hind wings held at different angles. They are usually orange, rust, or brown in color.